(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an assembly and method for assisting a person who is hearing impaired to understand a spoken word, and is directed more particularly to an assembly and method including a visual presentation of basic speech sounds (phonemes) directed to the person.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Various devices and methods are known for enabling hearing-handicapped individuals to receive speech. Sound amplifying devices, such as hearing aids are capable of affording a satisfactory degree of hearing to some with a hearing impairment.
Partial hearing loss victims seldom, if ever, recover their full range of hearing with the use of hearing aids. Gaps occur in a person's understanding of what is being said because, for example, the hearing loss is often frequency selective and hearing aids are optimized for the individuals in their most common acoustic environment. In other acoustic environments or special situations the hearing aid becomes less effective and there are larger gaps of not understanding what is said. An aid optimized for a person in a shopping mall environment will not be as effective in a lecture hall.
With the speaker in view, a person can speech read, i.e., lip read, what is being said, but often without a high degree of accuracy. The speaker's lips must remain in full view to avoid loss of meaning. Improved accuracy can be provided by having the speaker “cue” his speech using hand forms and hand positions to convey the phonetic sounds in the message. The hand forms and hand positions convey approximately 40% of the message and the lips convey the remaining 60%. However, the speaker's face must still be in view.
The speaker may also convert the message into a form of sign language understood by the deaf person. This can present the message with the intended meaning, but not with the choice of words or expression of the speaker. The message can also be presented by fingerspelling, i.e., “signing” the message letter-by-letter, or the message can simply be written out and presented.
Such methods of presenting speech require the visual attention of the hearing-handicapped person.
There is thus a need for a device which can convert, or translate, spoken words to visual signals which can be seen by a hearing impaired person to whom the spoken words are directed.